Ballad of Repentance

David del Valle Saldaña

1733

Dedicated to the Great Lord of Hosts.

Supreme and merciful God,
my affection to Your lofty and just compassion
dedicates to You today
the exordia of my muse.
Protect, immense Lord,
my coarse and crude pen
which on the paper is recording
my enormous and extreme wickedness.
That I might implore You, I wish
that more elastic were my quill,
that my tender torrents may make good
the defects of my writing.
I hope that my prayer will triumph
in the gigantic struggle
in which on the battlefield,
the battalion of my sin confronts me.
By praying, Moses caused
to Amalek an ill-fated flight;1
prayer is to God so pleasing
that victory it assures.
Jehoshaphat, devout King,
through his eloquent prayer,
fashioned from the field of battle a tomb
for the Ammonite hosts.2
Prayer is the antidote
against deadly sin,3
for although it may imitate scarlet,
into white wool it changes.4
Thus grant, O Lord,
to this humble creature
that with his prayer he may fashion
for his sin the tomb.
To You, Monarch Supreme,
I turn in my distress,5
to You I raise my hands,
from whence I await my cure.6
Upon Your justice and clemency
my chain today is founded,
whose sacred attributes
are a pillar of the spheres.7
This ever is seen
in Your divine scripture,
may it become a shield and refuge
against the sin that enshrouds me.
Lord, may your justice strengthen
the effects of supreme humility,8
for this virtue alone vanquishes
my hideous and miserable sin.
Obtaining today forgiveness
the soul pure will sail
through the gulfs of this world
to Heaven’s august city.
This confusion accept
from the center of a mute soul
that in humble meters fashions
the following combat or joust.

Translated by
David
Herman
.

Notes

Exodus 17:2.

2 Chronicles 20:19.

Psalms 51.

Isaiah 1:18

Psalms 120:1.

1 Kings 8:22.

Psalms 56:2.

Psalms 147:6.

Credits

David del Valle Saldaña, “Battalla Penitente (Ballad of Repentance)” (Song, Amsterdam, 1733). Published as: David del Valle Saldaña, “Certamen Penitentiale, Batalla Penitente,” in El Afrodiseo y Otras Obras Jocosas y Festivas by David del Valle Saldaña, ed. Kenneth Brown and Harm den Boer, (Mérida, Badajoz: Editora Regional de Extremadura, 1997), 141–172: 141–142.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.

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Creator Bio

David del Valle Saldaña

1699–1755

Born to a New Christian family in Badajoz, Spain, David (Félix) del Valle Saldaña made his way to Amsterdam, where, together with his father and brother, he was circumcised and joined the Sephardic community. In 1722, del Valle Saldaña began studying medicine at Utrecht. He was a prolific poet whose themes included poems for the weddings of important Sephardic families, love songs, and theatrical works dedicated to the House of Orange.

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